Console Chameleons: 7 Cross-Platform Video Game Adapters

Game companies have traditionally been an island unto themselves, but some have introduced devices that allow certain game systems to play cartridges designed for a completely different platform. Welcome to the family, foreign cartridges

Benj Edwards

July 9, 2019, 9:56 p.m.

Traditionally, each game console is an island that runs its own software from media unique to its own platform. This economic model that has successfully powered the video game industry since the launch of the Fairchild Channel F in 1976.

But there are times when game companies have turned this practice on its ear. Sometimes they have introduced devices that allow certain game systems to play cartridges designed for a completely different platform—or game cross-platform game adapters, for lack of a better term.

Being the kind of guy who likes to curate collections of weird corners of gaming history, I thought it would be fun to round up a selection of such devices for your reading amusement. In fact, the following seven products are the only officially sanctioned game system adapters I know of.

Sure, there are plenty of unauthorized cross-platform adapters, especially those released in recent years for Nintendo or Sega consoles. But we'll focus on the ones officially approved by the console maker. And by that I mean the maker of the console playing the games, because in a few cases, console makers dipped into a rival platform's game library without permission, as you'll see below.

Super Game Boy (1994)

By the early 1990s, Nintendo's Game Boy had became known for its murky screen, replete with motion blur, which didn't handle action games very well. But in 1994, Nintendo offered a solution: a special cartridge that let you play Game Boy games on your TV set through a Super NES. Perfect visibility! It also packed extra features such as colorizing games and special graphical borders, making it a versatile, well-received, and popular product.

How did it work? The cartridge itself contained all the hardware to run the Game Boy games, including its own CPU, and the Super Nintendo did the rest. Certain games were specially enhanced to take advantage of the Super Game Boy, adding more colors, and in some cases, even supporting two-player games using two Super NES controllers on the same unit.

VCS Cartridge Adapter (1983)

In 1982, Atari released a dud of a system called the Atari 5200 that combined re-hashes of its 8-bit computer line software with a huge console footprint and awkward, uncomfortable hand controllers. It also lacked backward compatibility with Atari's very popular VCS/2600 platform, which some critics cited as a drawback.

In response to those critics—and to 2600 adapters from rival console makers—Atari released the VCS cartridge adapter, which is basically an Atari 2600 in a small box that uses the 5200 power input and video output to function. You still need 2600-compatible controllers to play, and it was not compatible with the original four-port 5200 without modifying the console.

Power Base Converter (1989)

When Sega made the big move from 8-bit to 16-bit—from Master System to Genesis—it designed its new 16-bit console with backward compatibility in mind. So the Genesis console itself already contains the necessary circuitry built in to play most Master System games. The only catch is that the Genesis uses a different cartridge port than its predecessor.

Enter the Power Base Converter: an adapter that physically re-routes the contacts from Master System cartridges and game cards into the Genesis's cartridge slot. It also includes a pause button on the unit (like the Master System) for full compatibility. Many Sega fans purchased and loved their Power Base Converters back in the day.

ColecoVision Expansion Module #1 (1982)

Coleco built its ColecoVision console with impressive expansion capabilities baked in: there's a large port on the front of the console that can receive modules designed to enhance the capabilities of the system. The most complex upgrade, Expansion Module #3, turned the ColecoVision into a full-fledged home PC called the Adam.

But before the Adam rolled out, Coleco decided to try something that had never been done before: release an adapter that played games from a competitor's console. Expansion Module #1 plays almost the entire Atari 2600 game catalog while supporting Atari controllers. As you might guess, the module functions as a hardware clone of an Atari 2600 console; it merely uses the Colecovision for video output and power.

Atari wasn't happy about the module and cried foul in court, but the two firms eventually settled with Coleco, licensing Atari's patents. By that point, however, the American video game industry was in poor shape, and the ColecoVision didn't last long.

Master Gear Converter (1992)

When it came time to design a handheld video game system to compete with the Game Boy, Sega looked to technology it already had with the 8-bit Master System home console. The resulting handheld, Game Gear, shared much of the Master System's architecture but lowered the resolution, changed the screen ratio, and added support for 4096 colors (vs. the Master System's 64).

Even with those changes, the console could natively run Master System games, so Sega released an adapter called the Master Gear Converter. It screws into the back of the Game Gear and serves as a cartridge adapter that accepts original Master System cartridges, bulky as they may be. The resulting experience isn't that great, since the converter squishes the video from Master System games to fit onto the smaller screen (which is fairly low contrast to begin with). But it's a neat capability to have in a handheld unit.

Intellivision System Changer (1983)

After a few years on the market, Mattel redesigned its popular Intellivision console to reduce parts costs and modernize its look. The result, Intellivision II, shipped too close to the American video game crash to have its desired effect. But the console launched alongside some interesting new add-ons that make modern collectors happy.

One of those add-ons, the System Changer, takes a page from Coleco's playbook. It allows Intellivision owners to play most of the Atari VCS/2600 game library using their Intellivision.

There are a few catches, of course. First, the adapter doesn't work on the original Intellivision console without modifications, and System Changer is basically just an Atari 2600 clone that uses the Intellivision for video and power. You also need to use Atari joysticks. But for gamers who didn't like to leave two different consoles hooked up all the time, it was an appealing concept.

Game Boy Player (2003)

As the Game Boy marketing line increased its capabilities over the years with the Game Boy Color and then the Game Boy Advance, gamers could no longer use those upgraded features on the Super Game Boy. In 2003, Nintendo released a successor to the Super Game Boy for its then-current GameCube console that allowed users to play Game Boy Advance, Game Boy Color, or original Game Boy games on a TV set. It also allowed for Game Boy Advance system link capability, making for interesting multiplayer experiences.

Nintendo fans received the Game Boy Player with open arms, and it proved a very popular accessory for the Game Cube. Since then, we haven't seen an officially sanctioned hardware cross-platform adapter for a mainstream console. Instead, cross-platform support has turned into a software technique, using emulation to add backward or cross-platform compatibility. Any way you manage to do it, it still feels thrilling to play another console's games on a different machine.